excess editing request from client. wwyd?

My style, is clean edits. Crisp and clean. No effects, no names.

2 weekends ago, I did a shoot with a 15 year old boy with a guitar that wants to be "discovered".

Well, his mom wants me to add his name on the portraits. She even mentioned me adding fire to the background. Wha?

This is not my style, my style is clearly seen in my portfolio.

What would you do? I will not be adding fire, as I don't even know how to do that. Don't want to know how to do that. It sounds like a lot of extra time and work that would go into that.

But would you change your editing style by adding a name?

Adding the name would take about 2 minutes so no big deal there. As far as the fire - shoot her a price for editing it in and either learn how to do it or pay someone to do it. You don't have to put these on your blog/site/whatever so nobody else has to see them and see your style has been compromised.

Adding a name is a no brainer.. For one image it is an easy and simple..
Adding fire... OH BOY that can open up a whole can of worms. Even if you figure out how to do it and the time it will take you to do it, it may not be worth it. So you do it and she is not happy with the results....then you have to modify it again or maybe even start from scratch.

I would be honest and tell her you do not do that type of Photoshop.

The only problem with the name thing, is mom wants to come over and look through all my fonts to see which one she likes. So something that should take all of 3 minutes, can potentially take an hour. Something, I just don't have time for.

Just tell her you have the same ones she does so she can pick it out from the ease of her own space and let you know which she chooses. Either that or select 8-10 different fonts, write his name in each, and email her saying choose one of these. There's no reason that 5 minutes should turn into 1 hour of your time.

just tell her you are a photographer and not a graphic artist.

if you really do have to entertain her 'request' , then I suggest just giving her a website like http://www.1001freefon​ts.com/ where she can spend hours and hours choosing the font she likes without you wasting time on her.

^ This ^

rhommel wrote in post #13199234
just tell her you are a photographer and not a graphic artist.

^^ Enough said..
Is this a friend or acquaintance, or just a client?

If she doesn't understand the difference between photographer and graphics artist that's her problem not yours. You market yourself as a photographer so you didn't mislead her.
However, If your willing to release/allow alterations to your photos find a very expensive graphics artist and recommend she take the photos to them. But, I wouldn't want to grant permissions to alter any of my photos by a third party, unless the price was right..

Tell her you'll have to reshoot and she will have to hire a team of pyrotechnic experts so you can get the shot in camera....

Thanks folks. I feel better now, I am going to say no.

I don't release copyright, only print release.

No to the fire, and yes to the name?

If the photoshoot was for the sole purpose of publicity for the son, then I think it's reasonable for her to want the names on the images. And it's very easy for you to do. Heck, just do it in Lightroom as part of the export process, use the watermark feature to slap it on there.

Nathancarter, she wants to come over and go through all of my fonts, and pick the font.

Kpablo wrote in post #13200433
Nathancarter, she wants to come over and go through all of my fonts, and pick the font.

Charge her for your time.

Kpablo wrote in post #13200433
Nathancarter, she wants to come over and go through all of my fonts, and pick the font.

Before she comes by, delete everything except Comic Sans.


And Papyrus.

Kpablo wrote in post #13198427
2 weekends ago, I did a shoot with a 15 year old boy with a guitar that wants to be "discovered".

Well, his mom wants me to add his name on the portraits. She even mentioned me adding fire to the background. Wha?

"Discovered" to do what, exactly?

I work in the entertainment industry, and I'm pretty comfortable saying that something such as "fire" is not the way to go. Agents want to see the person. Anything more than a head in a head shot is going to detract from the head shot.

Strongly recommend to her that she not do it. She'll sink her son's career before it ever leaves the dock...